Lamé's Elastic Solid Ether Rekindled Background

An aside to the crash course on Basic mathematical structures of neo-classical continuum mechanics Energies through the ether flow, Waves travel to and fro, And with a ratio Their speed you measure. Colours yield their secret hue, And Saturn's rings subdued by you Suggest that gases Might be measured too. Science you freed From cramping mechanistic creed, And by your theory brought The elastic solid ether to naught, And changed the axiomatic basis Of scientific thought. Oh Maxwell! How can I declaim On such a genius, such a fame, And speak of one so very wise Who saw the world through splendid eyes, And though of such a subtle mind Was yet so humorous and kind? Yours was a mind unique and rare That, nurtured in a northern air, Struck out new paths in many ways Through all too short, yet fruitful days. How can one capture in a line Something so great, so pure, so fine? Give thanks, That such a man drew breath, And lament with all the world His early death. Dieses Wort¨Ather hat in der Entwicklung der Wissenschaft viele Male seine Bedeutung geändert. [. .. ] Seine Geschichte ist aber noch keineswegs beendet [. .. ]. In speaking of the Energy of the field, however, I wish to be understood literally. All energy is the same as mechanical energy, whether it exists in the form of motion or in that of elasticity, or in any other form. The energy in electromagnetic phenomena is mechanical energy. The only question is, Where does it reside?